Matt Brown (8-7) vs. Pete Sell (8-4)

There are those that raised eyebrows upon the revelation that Brown vs. Sell was slated for the pay-per-view portion of UFC 96 at the expense of matches involving Brandon Vera and Kendall Grove. But instead of questioning UFC Vice President of Talent Relations Joe Silva, they should be thanking him

Vera and Grove offer great name recognition value but their recent performances in the Octagon have been less than stellar. In their place, the UFC is providing a matchup that could contend for “Fight of the Night.”

Would you rather your hometown team start a struggling veteran quarterback at the expense of a more efficient backup for no other reason than the starter is making $8 million a year?

This is a crucial fight for Sell, who is just 2-4 in a UFC career that has been off-and-on dating back to 2004. A former middleweight, the Matt Serra-trained fighter delivered in a win or go home fight against Josh Burkman at UFC 90 this past October. Sell, a veteran from the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: The Comeback, recorded a unanimous decision over Burkman, a veteran from the season season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Despite training under Serra, Sell is not very slick on the ground with his greatest attribute being his punching power. Considered a heavy hitter at 185, he is one of the heaviest hitters in the world at 170.

The knockout artist will be looking to take out Brown, who is great at nothing but good at everything. One of the most well-rounded and grittiest fighters in the sport, Brown will look to improve his UFC record to 3-2 on the heels of his second round submission victory over Ryan Thomas this past November at UFC 91.

Training out of Team Jorge Gurgel, Brown will have the hometown crowd behind him. Getting strong reactions for all of his offensive maneuvers could be a difference maker with the judges in a matchup that appears to be evenly contested on paper.

In addition to having the crowd behind him, I believe that Brown’s versatility will also prove the difference in allowing him to walk away the winner.

Prediction: Unanimous decision.

Vera who recently signed a new contract with the UFC will be making his third fight as a light heavyweight when he takes on Mike Patt. Patt is coming off a loss to Tim Boetsch in his UFC debut back in September at UFC 88. Vera has not looked like the fighter who burst onto the UFC scene in 2005 that won his first four fights with the organization.

Grove will be taking on Canadian Jason Day in a middleweight matchup. Grove has not fought since winning a split decision over the late Evan Tanner at the live finale for The Ultimate Fighter 7 back in June of 2008. Meanwhile, Day had a successful debut with the UFC by defeating Alan Belcher but subsequently lost to Michael Bisping at UFC 85 in June of last year.

UFC 96 will take place in Columbus Ohio on March 7 and will showcase a main event between former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Greg Jackson-trained competitor Keith Jardine.

Jackson is coming off what very may be his most satisfying victory when he knocked out former Pride nemesis Wanderlai Silva in the first round at UFC 92 in December. Jardine will look to end a streak that has seen him lose one win one over the course of his last four fights. He was last seen in October of last year at UFC 89 where he defeated Vera via split decision.

Also on the main card will be Ohio native Matt Hamill as he looks to rebound from his loss to Rich Franklin when he takes on former WEC fighter and fellow collegiate wrestler Mark Munoz.

The UFC has held three prior events in Ohio with the first being UFC 68 in March of 2007 which of course saw the triumphant return of Randy Couture from retirement as he defeated then-heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia by unanimous decision. That event set a then North American MMA attendance record with 19,079 fans. The live gate for the event was $3,014,000.

The second trip to Ohio had a main event featuring a rematch between UFC middleweight champion and the man he defeated for the title ranklin at UFC 77 in October of 2007. The UFC made its esy back to Ohio for UFC 82 in March of 2008, where UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva recorded a second round submission against former PRIDE welterweight (183 lbs.) champion Dan Henderson.

Pete "Drago" Sell

One would assume that after such terrible bad luck, Sell had took the time away from the sport to get his head back on straight but as he explains, there was a lot more to the story.

“The reason I took the time off was because after my second fight with Nate Quarry I ended up with a torn labrum,” Sell explained. “I tore my shoulder so I was out for a bit. I didn’t get back to training until about February. I was in really bad shape and depressed. It was tough because I couldn’t do a lot of things. It was very upsetting.”

Sell took the time off as an opportunity to get things straightened out in his life and more specifically, in his training. Pete Sell admitted to drinking a lot more than he should have between fights and for a long period of time during his fighting career, he didn’t train at all.

“I feel like between those fights I didn’t do the right thing,” Sell said. “Even when I got back from the Ultimate Fighter I was partying too much. My whole career I did that. I was too much into the drinking and there was one point in time that I wasn’t even training, any type of training. Through my whole career I was doing it and getting away with it and still winning. I was 5-0 and then 6-0. I fought Phil Baroni in the UFC on pay-per-view when I was 22 years old and won so I was like, man, “If it aint broke don’t fix it”. I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. But you know what, eventually that stuff doesn’t work out and I paid for it in the long run. If I would have used all of that time in between fights to put to getting my skills better maybe I’d be a different fighter these days. I don’t want to ever have to say that again so I’m going down to the gym today and I’m going to do my thing”

Sell spent his entire career at 185 pounds before making the move down to 170 pounds to challenge Burkman in the welterweight division. A drop in weight class is always a major concern when done for the first time but Sells says the move to welterweight was a relatively painless transition.

“I did it the right way over a long period of time,” Sell said. “I went really strict with my diet and lost the body fat instead of just trying to kill myself with the water weight. I got really lean for that fight, I mean I got so lean for that fight, I had striations coming out that I never knew I had. I’ve never been that ripped in my life.

Just because Sell was able to make the weight fairly easily doesn’t mean that he would still feel strong and explosive the way he did at 185 but as Sell sees it, he’s better than ever at the new weight.

“I feel like it’s a good weight for me,” Sell said. “I’m stronger, I’m faster, I’m excited about it and I can’t wait to do it again”.

Even the punching power doesn’t seem to have left Sell in his new division. So many guys lose that snap in their punch after leaning down but that doesn’t seem to be the case with Sell.

“The punching power feels good,” Sell said. “Burkman told me after the fight, “Not many people punch as hard as you at 170″. That was a very nice compliment coming from him because he’s as tough as nails and he’s fought a lot of people.”

Even though Sell is beyond ecstatic about his rejuvenation in the UFC when asked about how he felt about his performance against Burkman he was surprisingly hard on himself.

“To be honest with you, I was upset at my performance in the fight,” Sell said. “I wanted to end the fight in the first round. I wanted to come out to 170 like BOOM, I’m here, I took the guy out, but it didn’t go that way. He ended up winning the first round.”

As Pete Sell returned to his corner after a round that he knew he had lost he was flooded with all of the feelings that he had bottled up since his four straight losses and decided that there was no way that he had worked so hard to have it end in defeat. He was going to have to do something and do something right then.

“At this point point it would have been like my fourth or fifth loss in a row and it would have drove me nuts,” Sell explained. “He won the first round and I was like, “This isn’t happening right now. I’ve put too much into this and he’s gonna have to kill me”. So I came back in the fight and won the next two rounds and almost finished it right before the bell rang.”

Sell is a self described changed man. He wants to use his positive experience to help anyone that is struggling with any kind of problem to overcome their barriers.

“I’m a new guy. I know what I have to do now and I’m motivated it just goes to show that nobody should ever give up,” Sell said. “If you believe in yourself and stay positive, eventually everything will work out for you. No matter what you’re dealing with.”

The future seem bright for Pete Sell once again and it’s been a long time coming for a man that has overcome so many obstacles in his career. Sell will figure out who he faces next in the coming weeks but for right now he’s going to soak it up and take it one step at a time.

“Right now I’m just happy to be back,” Sell said. “I’m enjoying some nice meals because I’ve been dieting really hard because of the weight class. I came home and had my girl cook me some Italian food, you know, I’m just hanging out. I might take a week to mentally get back to square one. I’m just really positive about everything and I’m sitting on cloud nine.”

“Sometimes after you fight and you lose it’s hard to get up and train,” explains Sell. “You put your time in on training and sparring and you put your body through hell and you still come out losing and just losing for years. Two and a half years! It’s tough mentally to get through that and then when I get to the Burkman fight and lost the first round and push through to win in the end, it’s awesome! I just really kept a positive attitude the whole time and really pushed through it and it worked out for me. I just want to spread that word that nobody should give up in life and you should just keep doing your thing because it will happen for you. Hard work and dedication, it will pay off.”

Pete Sell would like to thank Sprawl, Denaro Sports Marketing,  Serra Competition Team, Lifetime Chimney Supply, and Ashman Eat Me Premium Broccoli for all of their support.

Burkman has lost 3 of 4 bouts since cracking some journalists’ top 10 lists and a loss here could very well send him out of the UFC. Sell, 0-4 in his last UFC appearances, will be dropping down to welterweight to take the challenge. This seems to be a do or die bout for both fighters as the UFC has recently shown no problems in cutting fighters they don’t find exciting (Burkman) or fighters that don’t win (Sell). While on the undercard, this could be a major fight in the UFC’s welterweight division.

UFC 90, on October 25th, is set to be headlined by a middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Patrick Cote. Also on the main card is reported to be Diego Sanchez vs. Thiago Alves, Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin and Melvin Guillard vs. Spencer Fisher.

First, there are strong signals that Rickson Gracie intends to fight MMA again on New Year’s Eve. Gracie doesn’t specify for who or for where, but K-1 is the only major MMA promotion left in Japan and I don’t see Gracie fighting in the States.

Also, it appears a life has been spared. Sherdog.com is reporting that Kazushi Sakuraba’s next fight will be on Sept. 17 for K-1 Hero’s in Yokohama, Japan against former pro wrestler Katsuyori Shibata. There had been rumors that a bout between Sakuraba and Denis Kang was going to take place but Kang apparently is not formally signed to K-1 (the UFC has no idea how bad its middleweight division needs Denis Kang). Kang would have wrecked him.

I also noticed in the Sherdog.com report that former Pride and Cage Rage fighter Zelg Galesic will be fighting Dong Sik Yoon on 9/17. Galesic is a strong prospect who would have been perfect for the WEC’s 185 lbs. division.